Eagles of the Alicante Mountains

Short toed Eagle

Well, my name is Tom, I'm 29 and for almost 22 years now I have lived in Spain, in the Alicante mountains. I have started this blog (a new adventure for me, but hey, it's probably similar to facebook and other social media) to write and explain a bit about what I do, and the things that can be found while out and about in the Alicante mountains with Mountain Walks Spain S.L. (this is the company I am currently working at, if anyone is interested you can get more information on our website www.mountainwalks.com). For years and year i was very interested in wildlife, I lost the interest until I started working as a guide and little by little, have regained interest. I just hope that what I can share with people via this blog is of interest to all. If anyone wants to comment after reading please do, at this stage it can only help me write better entries.

Today being the first day I am doing this, and also with it being the time of year that most eagles are breeding, also in some surprising cases even migrating back into the area from Africa a few months early. This is the case of the Short toed Eagle, seen in the photo above (I will also say that all the photos that I put on this blog are photos that have been taken by me in person, and if not, will only be published with permission of the guest that took the photo while staying with MountainWalks). These fantastic birds can be seen in the Alicante mountains when temperatures start to rise after winter has passed, it is not rare to see one soaring above you in the valley where we are based (Vall de Seta), if you are lucky enough you can get a very good display since they eat while in flight to minimize danger to being attacked by potential predators on the ground, if you manage to see this it is possible to have the eagle circling overhead for anything up to 20 minutes. The photo above was taken in September 2013 and I am hoping to be able to get even better photos as years go by.

Golden Eagle in flight

Golden Eagle pearched on the rock face
(photo taken using binoculars for extra zoom)

Another kind of eagle we get more than often while out walking the dramatic and spectacular mountains of Alicante is the Golden eagle, even though we see them almost on a weekly basis and maybe more than once in the same week, they are very fast flyers, and it has been extremely difficult to photograph them. Here are a couple of the pictures we have been able to take over the years. Light conditions are the distance they usually keep makes it very hard for a good shot. But it does have to be said, when they put on a show, they really do put on a show for us on the walks. We have had Golden eagles flying overhead for up to 40 minutes in some occasions, and if they are with their young it makes for an even better display, depending on the age of the offspring the parents will let it fly with them or you can get a display at high-speed mid air of two adult Golden eagles mobbing their young (this happens when they reach the age to leave the nest, and we have been able to see twice over the last 3 years). Being the largest of eagles in the Alicante mountains, it is easy to identify them even if it is at a long distance, also because out of the eagles that we see the most in the area (being the three that I am going to mention today) it does not have any white under wing like the Short toed eagles or the rare Bonelli's eagle, unless it is a young one, then in that case its under wing can be similar to that of the Bonelli's at first sight, the size usually lets you identify young Golden eagles correctly.

Bonelli's eagle in flight

So, last but not least, we get to Europes most rare eagle, and in the Alicante mountains there is a high population of them and more than once can be seen flying in pairs. The colouring on these eagles is like a mix of that of the Golden eagle and the Short toed eagle. IT may be rare, but we get to see a good amount of them in the area, and we hope that anyone that comes on any of our walks gets a great view of these majestic birds.

For today this is all the time I have to be able to put this together, I wish I could go on forever about these birds, and about the area in general. But for now it's time to continue on other things. And I also promise to make the blogs more interesting in the future. It's just a case of improving over time.

Going to think on what to write about next.

Thanks for reading,

Tom Fagg

MountainWalks.com